Police didn't link two calls on missing worker

Updated 11:26 pm, Monday, August 27, 2012

Photo: Billy Calzada, San Antonio Express News

Image 1of/8

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 8

Octavio Diaz, 2, nephew of Inocencio Victor Rodriguez Diaz, a worker who died after falling into a smokestack at the Pearl Brewery, stands by a collection jar during a barbecue plate sale on Saturday, Aug. 26, to help the family raise funds to take his body to Mexico for burial. Donations can be made by calling 210-514-2701.

Octavio Diaz, 2, nephew of Inocencio Victor Rodriguez Diaz, a worker who died after falling into a smokestack at the Pearl Brewery, stands by a collection jar during a barbecue plate sale on Saturday, Aug. 26,

Nereo Diaz, 23, left to right, Elda Diaz, 24, and Luci Diaz, 21, siblings of Victor Diaz, whose body was found in the Pearl Brewery smokestack, hold a photo of him in at Nereo's house. The family is from Chiapas. Wednesday, August 22, 2012. less

Nereo Diaz, 23, left to right, Elda Diaz, 24, and Luci Diaz, 21, siblings of Victor Diaz, whose body was found in the Pearl Brewery smokestack, hold a photo of him in at Nereo's house. The family is from ... more

Photo: BOB OWEN, San Antonio Express-News

Image 3 of 8

Nereo Diaz, 23, left to right, Elda Diaz, 24, and Luci Diaz, 21, siblings of Victor Diaz, whose body was found in the Pearl Brewery smokestack, hold a photo of him in at Nereo's house. The family is from Chiapas. Wednesday, August 22, 2012. less

Nereo Diaz, 23, left to right, Elda Diaz, 24, and Luci Diaz, 21, siblings of Victor Diaz, whose body was found in the Pearl Brewery smokestack, hold a photo of him in at Nereo's house. The family is from ... more

Photo: BOB OWEN, San Antonio Express-News

Image 4 of 8

Roofing workers continues at the Pearl Brewery where Victor Diaz, whose body was found in the Pearl Brewery smokestack, also was a roofer. Wednesday, August 22, 2012.

Roofing workers continues at the Pearl Brewery where Victor Diaz, whose body was found in the Pearl Brewery smokestack, also was a roofer. Wednesday, August 22, 2012.

Photo: BOB OWEN, San Antonio Express-News

Image 5 of 8

San Antonio police are investigating the death of a man, believed to be a construction worker, who was found at the bottom of a smokestack at the Pearl Brewery on Tuesday, August 21, 2012.

San Antonio police are investigating the death of a man, believed to be a construction worker, who was found at the bottom of a smokestack at the Pearl Brewery on Tuesday, August 21, 2012.

Photo: Eva Ruth Moravec, San Antonio Express-News

Image 6 of 8

Family say they believe that the body found in the smokestack at the Pearl Brewery was that of construction worker Victor Diaz, of Chiapas, Mexico. Pcitured is the door leading oiut of the bottom of the somkestack. Other workers said they saw flies around the door and said they smelled a strong odor.

Family say they believe that the body found in the smokestack at the Pearl Brewery was that of construction worker Victor Diaz, of Chiapas, Mexico. Pcitured is the door leading oiut of the bottom of the

Diagram shows the scene at the Pearl Brewery, where a body was found inside the smokestack.

Diagram shows the scene at the Pearl Brewery, where a body was found inside the smokestack.

Photo: Mike Fisher

Image 8 of 8

Police didn't link two calls on missing worker

1 / 8

Back to Gallery

About 90 minutes before the brother of a Mexican roofer who vanished during his first day of work at the Pearl Brewery called authorities to report his disappearance, a friend and policeman scoured the grounds for the missing man, authorities said Monday.

Had an earlier, previously unreported emergency call, made by the friend at 9:47 p.m., been linked to the second call, made by Inocencio Victor Rodriguez-Diaz's brother at 11:10 p.m., police might have searched the construction site again Aug. 14, Police Chief William McManus said.

One week after the calls, Rodriguez-Diaz's decomposing body was found at the bottom of the Pearl smokestack, where officers reportedly found blood on a small metal door padlocked from the outside and his shoes and work belt beside him.

“During that second call, had we connected it to the first, we very well would have gone back to the Pearl,” McManus said Monday. “Had the brother said that he was working on a roofing site at the Pearl Brewery, I'm certain we would have gone back out to check.”

The first call, made by the unidentified friend — who had helped Rodriguez-Diaz, 31, get the job — was made from the Pearl.

Most Popular

“Diaz does not have a phone or ID ... (caller) is worried that Diaz may have gotten locked in somewhere ... Diaz would be on foot, does not have vehicle,” a police report states. Rodriguez-Diaz, whose two children and wife live in Chiapas, Mexico, hadn't been seen since 10
a.m., according to the report.

An officer combed the site for more than an hour but didn't find anyone, the report states. The fruitless search ended and the call was closed after 11 p.m., just as Rodriguez-Diaz's brother was calling police from the South Side home he shared with his brother.

“Maybe if they'd known about the other call, things would have been better,” said Leticia Diaz, Rodriguez-Diaz's sister-in-law, who was unaware of the first call to police from the Pearl. “But nobody communicates.”

No report made

Nereo Diaz couldn't tell police exactly where his brother worked, said McManus, and was “concerned but not overly concerned,” according to the officer who took the call.

Diaz told police he'd call back in the morning if his brother still hadn't returned.

The next day, Aug. 15, Diaz called police back to say Rodriguez-Diaz hadn't come home. An officer who got Diaz's message and called him back said Diaz didn't answer the phone.

“So we weren't able to do anything at that particular time,” McManus said. “A guy disappears from a work site, and there were no extraordinary circumstances in this case. Where there's foul play is where there's a call to arms.”

None of the calls resulted in a missing persons report, which must be taken immediately upon a caller's request, according to the Police Department's general manual. There is no “arbitrary waiting period required before reporting an individual missing,” it states.

Had a report been made, it would have been sent to the department's missing persons detail, McManus said. Those officers could have then enlisted the help of dogs, had there been something to sniff, or a helicopter, had officers known where he might have gone.

If he had been a child, a senior citizen or someone who needs medication regularly, police would have searched around the clock. Had he been in danger, “we will continue to look at him from shift to shift,” McManus said.

Instead, flies and the stench of decay led police to Rodriguez-Diaz, a Mexican citizen who was in San Antonio illegally, a week after he fell 20 feet down the smokestack from a 15-foot-long duct that connected the structure to the Boiler House.

Rodriguez-Diaz's employer said he did all he could with the limited information he had.

“I called his friend, who called his brother, and we looked around the building all over,” Celestino Cervantes said. “I looked for about an hour with his brother and friend, and then they came back later. I looked all day.”

Cervantes said he looked in the Boiler House but didn't get close to the metal breeching duct connected to the smokestack.

“This is an extremely tragic case, and highly unusual in that Mr. Diaz was found in the bottom of the smokestack,” McManus said. “Even after walking the grounds, the officer and the supervisor didn't find him.”

Rodriguez-Diaz's family is preparing for a funeral in Mexico, which the Mexican Consulate is paying for. Andrew Weissman, who owns two restaurants at the Pearl, pledged to donate $1,000 to the Diaz family, and on Monday, Fauerso said the Pearl had raised another $1,000.

“Our staff at Pearl, because we're so saddened by the accident that resulted in the death of Victor Diaz, want to express our deepest sympathy to the family,” Fauerso said.

The disappearance of an ordinary, healthy person is somewhat unusual, McManus said, but missing people in San Antonio aren't: In all of last year, there were 2,496 people reported to the Police Department as missing. This year, more than 2,500 have been reported, but police aren't sure why that number is already higher than last year's total.